Florida Ridge Villa

Florida's best Roller Coasters

RIP RIDE ROCKIT (Universal studios) is one of my favourite, built near the entrance to Universal Studios the ride looks very imposing and certainly makes a statement. The ride itself starts with the normal queue, but this time you are shown various types of music you can choose while you are on the ride. Once actually on the ride, you are then allowed to choose your favourite tune before you are locked in. What is so impressive with this ride is the first near vertical drop. To say it takes your breath away is an understatement! Just make sure you don’t leave any loose change in your pocket! As it will be lost forever! The rest of the ride is full of loops, twists and large banked turns. The fact you are listening to the music you chose when you boarded the ride is also a really good extra.

 

MANTA (Seaworld Orlando) is another of the great Florida coasters. The ride gives people the feeling they are gliding through the water like a great Manta. Having already a great ride in the KRACKEN, Seaworld were looking to increase the quantity of rides in their park, this they have done by including the MANTA, which is an excellent ride. The fact you are also lying flat through all the loops, spins and turns, gives you a different feeling to the KRACKEN and other coasters in Florida.

 

Universal Islands of Adventure has some of the best rides in Florida, These are the HULK and DRAGGONS Challenge. The HULK is one of the best rides in the World and is normally found in the top 10 rides in the World list. It is a super ride and really does make you feel like it is easily in that top 10. It certainly is the best ride in Florida. DRAGGONS challenge is actually 2 roller coasters in one ride (Blue and Red dragon). Each ride gives a different feel and both should be ridden to feel the differences. Both dragons end up inches from each other on many of the inverted loops and this in itself is a great feet of engineering. DRAGGONS challenge is located in the new HARRY POTTER land.

 

Finally and no means last is Busch Gardens. Busch is renowned in Florida as the best roller coaster park. It has in total over 6 of them. The best rides here are the SHEIKRA, CHEETAH RUN, KUMBA and MONTU. Not to mention the GWAZI (an old wooden coaster).  SHEIKRA is potentially one of the scariest rides in Florida, having 2 vertical drops. The ride also goes through some serious loops and banked turns too. CHEETAH run is not so much scary, but does get to in excess of 65mph and runs from one end of the park to the other. Two of the older rides here are the KUMBA and MONTU. Both are over 13 years old and are no means the showing their age. KUMBA is especially good as it inverts people over 8 times. MONTU on the other hand is very tight and pulls big G Forces.

 

There are others that are worth note here too, ROCK ‘N’ ROLLER COASTER is at Hollywood Studios and does 0-62 in less than 2 seconds before going around loops and banked turns in the dark, EXPEDITION EVEREST is also a great ride at Animal Kingdom, finally the MUMMY at Universal Studios is also great as it immerses you in a story as well as indoor coaster.

 

If you are looking for some great rides, Florida offers these in spades. It is one of the main attractions that draws in the crowds each year. If you go to each of these parks during the week, the queue times will be shorter which does obviously help. If you don’t like the wait, why not purchase the FASTPASS options at Universal parks and Busch Gardens.

 

 

Florida guide report - Florida's best Roller Coasters